NICU infant noted to have extrasystoles on cardiac monitor
Case You receive a call from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) regarding an ex-34 week premature infant. “I have this 1 week old male infant who is here for a…
Newborn nursery infant that has bradycardia
Case I’m calling from the newborn nursery and I’m the charge nurse on for today. I have a 1-day old newborn infant that on auscultation has a slow heart rate….
Ischemic heart disease
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) Myocardial mechanics in IHD Regional function and IHD In 1935, Tennant and Wiggers demonstrated that a coronary occlusion almost immediately induced a regional wall motion abnormality….
Detection and characterization of diastolic dysfunction
Basics of diastolic function Left ventricular (LV) filling results from active relaxation and diastolic chamber compliance, and LV diastolic dysfunction (DD) is the result of impaired LV relaxation and increased…
Evaluation of right ventricular function and pulmonary hypertension
The right ventricle plays a crucial role in determining patient functional status and prognosis in various conditions. Accordingly, the quantification of right ventricular (RV) function should be part of any…
Future applications of strain imaging
Since its birth in the late 1990s, strain echocardiography has continued to grow over the past 20 years. Currently, global longitudinal strain (GLS) has been standardized for clinical application as…
Strain in valvular diseases
Valvular diseases may be viewed as a model of how inappropriate loading conditions can lead to cardiac dysfunction, symptoms, and finally death. A paradox of valvular heart diseases is that,…
Evaluation of patients with heart failure
An estimated 6.2 million Americans older than 20 years suffer from heart failure. As the population ages and heart failure treatments improve, this number is expected to increase, with more…
Evaluation and monitoring of patients with cardiomyopathies (including myocardial infiltration)
Cardiomyopathy is a general term used to describe a heterogeneous group of diseases that result in impairment of ventricular function. Clinical manifestations of these diseases can range from an asymptomatic…
Temporal dispersion of contraction, arrhythmias, and dyssynchrony and role in resynchronization therapy
Pathophysiology of dispersed ventricular contraction The prediction of sudden cardiac arrest from ventricular arrhythmias remains challenging. Ventricular arrhythmias can occur from all major myocardial diseases and are the most common…
